New Homeless Outreach Teams Hit The Streets

New outreach strategy includes single point of accountability in each borough

The New York City Department of Homeless Services announces the redesign of its street outreach services. Four NYC providers have been awarded new street homeless outreach contracts that will result in a single point of accountability for each borough, ensuring an unprecedented level of coordination. These new contracts incorporate previously held DHS and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) contracts and provide for management oversight by DHS with clinical oversight by DOHMH. The selected providers are:  Goddard Riverside Community Center, Manhattan; Common Ground Community, Brooklyn/Queens; Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), Bronx; and Project Hospitality, Staten Island.

“This new outreach strategy will help keep us on target to meet the Mayor’s goal of reducing the number of homeless individuals living on the streets by two-thirds or more by 2009,” Said DHS Commissioner Robert V. Hess. “Our providers will be held accountable for their areas and for ensuring the most vulnerable New Yorkers are engaged and hopefully brought in off the streets.”
 
Since Mayor Bloomberg announced his five year plan to decrease homelessness, the number of single adults in the city’s homeless shelters has decreased 19%. The number of permanent housing placements has increased 57% during the same time period. The number of single adults in shelter is the lowest it’s been since 2002.

The providers convened for the first time at DHS’ Street to Home Outreach Conference on October 2, 2007. Outreach workers met to discuss implementation of new outreach strategies that include engagement and housing resources. Other participating city agencies included the MTA, NYPD and Parks Department. Former New York Jets running back Curtis Martin was also on hand as he teams up to support the City’s homelessness prevention efforts.

Contracts are performance-based and include evidence-based practices such as the Housing First model. This model focuses on placing chronically homeless individuals in housing and then working on their mental health or substance issues rather than making placements contingent upon successfully addressing those issues, which often deter people who are chronically homeless from seeking housing.  Outreach workers will also begin using a new citywide data collection and analysis database featuring wireless handheld devices to access and input client information from the street.  And, DHS is expanding the low-threshold housing options that exist outside the shelter system that are so often embraced by people who are chronically homeless—safe havens and stabilization beds.